Thursday, May 21, 2015

Claudia Sacramento Died Today

I would like to dedicate this post explaining my love for this incredible woman, Claudia who died today, and that I was able to meet her in Tampico, Mexico.

I am grateful for her example of for faith, endurance, love, respect, kindness, and so much more. She was blessed magnificently with these traits of our loving Heavenly Father to compensate for the health issues she has struggled with throughout her life.

I love her very much! I am so glad that I was given an opportunity to know her and to reaffirm everything that I have taught her. I know that the plan of salvation is real! Until we meet again! I love you!

Ruben (father) and Claudia (daughter) Sacramento

From Hermana Arely Luque (Riverton, Utah)

It's amazing how Heavenly Father works a year ago Claudia Sacramento became a member of the LDS church, I will never forget her amazing spirit... She had gone deaf but could only communicate by talking and reading.. It was a life changing experience being able to see how she didn't need to hear to be able to feel in her heart that the church was true smile emoticon
She passed away 2 days ago, I remember her expressing her gratitude before I came home she told me "I am so happy knowing that I will be able to hear again and most importantly I will be able to have my family for all eternity" I know she will be reunited with her family again. RIP Claudia ❤ te quiero un buen!!!

Hna. Albuja and Hna. Luque taught Claudia (center) and she accepted their invitation to be baptized.

The following is what we wrote in our Crockett Chronicles on 24 May 2015. This is the LONG story.

Last Sunday in Relief Society, Sherryl was
quite surprised when the sister missionaries stood to read a text to let us
know that if we wanted to say “good bye” to Claudia Sacramento that we needed
to go to Alejandra’s home soon. It was just the Monday before that we had been
to see Ruben and take him the rice bag. Claudia
was there then and we visited with her as well. She got out the white writing board
and we included her in our visit while Paul was fixing Ruben’s alarm
clock. While we were there,
Alejandra came and said she was there to take Claudia to a doctor’s appointment
so we wished them well. Claudia was dressed nicely and walked out of their
apartment unaided. Afterwards, Ruben shared with us that he was very concerned
about Claudia’s health and she wasn't eating well and she now only weighs 30
kilos (66 lbs) down from 37 kilos (81 lbs.) when she was baptized a year
ago. Ruben is a very caring
father and provider. The
reason he wanted the alarm clock to work was so he could wake up to make sure
that Claudia was taking the medicine she was to have every 4 fours. Claudia’s health was constantly
on 87 year old Ruben’s mind. In
many ways, they have kept each other going since we have known them. She is concerned about him and fixing
him meals and he is concerned about her. We
were aware of Claudia being taken to the doctor a few other times and didn't
have any reason to think this visit would be different but it was. We learned that when Claudia saw the
doctor that Monday, he decided to admit her to the hospital so he could run
some tests. Three days
later, Alejandra was told that Claudia’s body was shutting down and her organs
no longer worked. There was
nothing the doctors could do for Claudia. Alejandra
took Claudia to her own home.

After
Relief Society, Sherryl visited with the missionaries and they asked if we were
interested in going with them to visit Claudia later in the day. We
said we were. They first needed to get permission to leave their
area from Pte. Jordan and then they had a dinner appointment with Hna. Diaz and
then would be ready to go. We asked the best method to get to
Alejandra’s home and they said a taxi would be best so we offered to call a
taxi and to pick them up. As we thought about things and weren't sure
who else would be visiting Claudia, we realized that we would feel better
if Claudia received a priesthood blessing. So we reluctantly phoned
Hno. Ortega who owns a taxi. We were reluctant since we knew
he wouldn't accept any payment for his services on a Sunday but
Paul made the call and said we needed a ride and also needed him to help with a
priesthood blessing. Hno. Ortega arrived in his white shirt and tie. We went to
pick up the missionaries and since Hna. Diaz had heard we were getting a taxi,
she decided to come too. So the four sisters were squished in the back seat
while we drove. We found the street address and learned that
Alejandra lived in the house in the back. We knocked, entered
and were told Claudia was up the stairs. We saw a very different
Claudia from the week before. Claudia, in her nightgown and covered
with a sheet was lying peacefully in a coma. A large oxygen tank was close by
to help her breathe. Two sisters from the ward were also visiting
Claudia and they said Alejandra wasn't home right then and had just
left to take Ruben back to his apartment. They were thinking
about singing a hymn and we chatted until Alejandra and her
daughter. We asked her if it would be ok if we sang and she said it
would be fine. The hymn Hna. Meza chose was “God Be With You ‘Til We
Meet Again.” Alejandra and her daughter Rebecca are not members of
the church and listened respectfully to our hymn. She thanked us and
was very kind. She told us about their visit to the doctor and how
Claudia has now been resting peacefully for the past two days. Hna.
Mesa asked if it would be ok if Paul and Hno. Ortega gave Claudia a
blessing. Alejandra gave her permission and said she was actually
concerned and wondered if someone from our church would come to bless Claudia. We didn't stay
much longer and Alejandra said she would contact the sister missionaries
to let them know about Claudia’s death. She said that death was just
another part of life and it happens. Hno. Ortega took us home, refused to
accept payment for his taxi services and we went about our day waiting to hear
from the missionaries any time. Hna. Albuja from Ecuador and Hna.
Luque from Utah had been the missionaries who lovingly and patiently taught
Claudia the gospel. Claudia was deaf but loved to read and the
sisters would go out of their way to prepare special lessons for
Claudia. They truly loved her in the church and persuaded her to be
baptized. Before she went home from her mission, Hna. Albuja left us her
contact information and we wrote to tell her the sad news about
Claudia. She thanked us and asked us to keep in touch.

Claudia
was on the back of our minds for the next few days and we wondered about her
and prayed for her and for Ruben. It was on Thursday evening when we
got home from the temple after 9 p.m. that Paul checked his phone and saw that
the missionaries had texted us to say that Claudia had died that
morning. We wrote to Hna. Albuja to let her know that Claudia had
passed away. The missionaries didn’t answer their phone. Paul
phoned the Saldivars to find out what they had heard and they heard she had
died but didn’t know any details of the services but would get back in touch
with us. On Friday morning we made more phone calls from the foyer
of the temple to find out details from the Saldivars and the sister
missionaries. What we learned was a surprise and rather
upsetting. Clauda had died Thursday morning and by Thursday
afternoon, her body had been cremated and taken to the Social Security Funeral
Home that is about 20 miles from the temple and not in a place where there is
much public transportation. The services for Claudia had been on
Thursday evening and through the night and we had missed it all. We
were told that Ruben had not attended the services at the funeral home since it
was so far away and at night. We felt at a loss. We tried
to piece things together as we walked to the grocery store on our way
home. What could we do? Who was comforting
Ruben? We picked up a few items and were in the checkout stand when
we received the Lord’s tender mercy. Hno. Rojas is in our ward’s
bishopric. He walked into the store, saw us and came directly to
us. He greeted us and then said that he, Bishop Reyes, Pte. Esparza
from the stake presidency had all spent last evening with Ruben in his
apartment. They had prayed together, sang hymns and talked of family
and things of eternity. Hno. Rojas shook our hands again and went to
do his shopping not knowing that he had just deeply touched our hearts and
comforted us with his message.

We
went home, then decided to visit Ruben and had two things ready to take to
him. We called Ruben and he said we were welcome to
come. The door was opened to Ruben’s apartment by a large
young man and Ruben introduced us to his grandson, Jorge, who is Alejandra’s
son. Ruben is ever the gentleman. He greeted us and told
us how nice it was for the Bishop and Pte. Esparza and the others to come spend
some time with him the night before. He had been receiving
visitors during the day and he loves to have company. We asked who
was going to fix his food now and he said Alejandra will bring him some food
every day for lunch. We routinely take photos of the missionaries
serving in our ward that we get to know. We had found and printed a
photo of Hna. Albuja and Hna. Luque for Ruben and he was happy to see them. He
had an empty photo frame and we trimmed the photo and Jorge put it in the
frame. Ruben set it on the table next to him. We had brought rice
pudding that Sherryl had made for Ruben and Jorge put it in the fridge, then
kissed his grandpa and left. We asked Ruben if he wanted us to sing
and he did. There was only one hymn book so we crowded together to
sing “As I Read the Holy Scriptures.” We had to return to the temple
and asked if we could have a prayer together and Ruben said he wanted to say
it. His prayers are tender and he says he doesn’t know how to pray,
he just talks to his Father. He told his Father that he missed
Claudia but he was happy she wasn’t suffering. Then he said he was
closing his prayer because he was feeling very emotional.

It is still hard to wrap our minds around all
that has happened this week. We were happy to see the two tributes to Claudia (located above) on Facebook.